Homesick
by patriciawilliamsons
Summary: "She was homesick. Not for her house down the street in the muggle world, but for Hogwarts, her one true home."


_This is my entry for **RootsOfAHotelWindow**'s Homesickness challenge. Just a little oneshot/drabble about Hermione missing Hogwarts. Review!  
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><p>"Why is she over there, reading?"<p>

"I know! Doesn't she have any _friends_?"

"What a freak!"

Hermione knew the girls were talking about her, but did not react. She stared determinedly down at her book.

It was the summer between first and second year, and Hermione was sitting on the swingset, reading a book at a playground in her neighborhood, trying to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. But nooo. These muggle girls she knew from her old school who always used to tease her had to come and disturb her with their giggles and stage whispers about how Hermione was a freak with no friends. If only they knew exactly _what _Hermione was reading or where she had disappeared to over the school year...

Hermione gritted her teeth as she heard one girl whisper loudly that she knew for a fact that Hermione had spent the year at a mental hospital, and was reading to catch up on all the schoolwork she missed. Even though she knew not to let the girls get to her, it still stung.

Harry and Ron would never tease her like this! Well, Ron would, but he did it in such a way that Hermione knew that he didn't mean it.

Harry. Ron. Just thinking about them made Hermione ache for Hogwarts. The castle, the grounds, the lake. Classes. Going to Hagrid's for tea. Studying in the common room while Harry and Ron played Wizard's Chess.

Hermione heard the girls giggling again, and knew she must look stupid staring off into space. But she didn't care-she was lost in her memories of Hogwarts.

Hogwarts was the only place she felt she truly belonged. At Hogwarts, she wasn't the only one who could make strange things happen, or the only one who enjoyed reading(though even there not many people did). It was the only place she felt accepted for who she was. She wanted to go back to Hogwarts and practice more spells, and help Harry and Ron with her homework, and curl up in her favorite chair in front of the common room fire with a book.

It wasn't that Hermione didn't like her house with her parents, she really did, but something just didn't feel right. She always felt like an outsider whenever she was in the muggle world, like the one that didn't belong. She loved her parents very much, but even around them she always felt like an outcast. By the time she turned eleven, she had given up trying to fit it and thought that that was the way it was always going to be-at least until she recieved her Hogwarts acceptance letter, which changed everything.

She also had never had any siblings and very few friends, so Hermione had a very lonely childhood. But when she came to Hogwarts, it was as if she had lots of brothers and sisters in Gryffindor, and she had grown to love them all over the past year.

Absentmindedly, she shut her book and walked over to a nearby tree, and picked up a twig off the ground. She twirled it around in her fingers and imagined sparks shooting out of it. The muggle girls shrieked with laughter, pointing at her, and Hermione turned to them, giving them a sarcastic wave and smile.

"Hey Ali, how's your summer going?"

"Great, how was your time at the mental institution?" The girl named Ali replied, smiling nastily. Ali had hated Hermione since first grade when they had been partners for an art project, and they had both wanted to draw the flower, but when Ali tried to draw it, none of the crayons she tried to use would show up on the paper. At the time, Hermione wasn't sure how it happened, but now she knew that it had been because she was a witch.

"Brilliant, thanks for asking." replied Hermione.

Ali and the others looked shocked that she had admitted to being at a mental institution. Hermione rolled her eyes and turned her back on them. As soon as she turned seventeen, they were all going to be toads.

Toads. With a smile, Hermione remembered her first day on the train, how she had helped Neville look for his toad, and met her best friends Harry and Ron in the process. They certainly hadn't liked her at first. But, after they fought the troll together, they became good friends. That was when Hogwarts had first started feeling like home for Hermione, when Harry and Ron had become her friends.

She missed everything about Hogwarts. She was homesick. Not for her house down the street in the muggle world, but for Hogwarts, her one true home.


End file.
